A Year Without You - Ziam

Chapter Six

November

October had come and gone, and Liam was still not home. It had been approximately a month and a half, everyone seemed to have gotten used to the idea of him being gone, of Liam no longer coming back. Everyone, except Zayn, Liam's family and Zayn's parents. They all still held hope in their hearts that Liam would come back home one day, maybe it would take a few more months but they all knew he'd come home.

It was getting colder out, more windy, the leaves had all fallen off the trees, covering the ground in yellow, orange and brown. The leaves would break under Zayn's feet as he walked down the side walk, his hands tucked into the pockets of his jacket. He made his way to the his school, it was very calm for it to be morning. No cars speeding down the streets, nor people filling up the sidewalks, he was all alone, no one around as he walked.

He made his way towards the football field once he arrived to his school, since it is always opened to the public since everyone who uses it always takes care of it. He walked onto the field, being Saturday he was all alone there too. He made his way to his usual spot, which is where he spent his time before school, during lunch and after school, and of course a few hours on the weekends.

Zayn sat down crossing his legs leaning back slightly holding himself up by placing his hands on the ground. He looked around taking in his surroundings, the grass was no longer the bright green it had been when school first started, now it was ugly brown, with patches of a dull green here and there, the sky was grayish and cloudy, the trees that were close by were bare and looked sad. He shivered slightly when a breeze blew making him sit up and pull his jacket closer to him.

Zayn had isolated himself from everyone in the past weeks, quitting the dance team, no longer hanging out with the people he used to, no longer going out in the weekends, no longer having movie nights, no longer dancing just for fun, and no longer trying to put effort into his school work. Zayn knew it was bad of him not to care about anything anymore, starting with his health and wellbeing, but he didn't see a reason to care about anything anymore. Therefore, Zayn had turned to alcohol and drugs, smoking pot really.

He pulled out a small joint out of his pocket and a lighter from the other pocket. He placed the small thing in between his lips and flicked the lighter on to place the flame at the end of the joint, he turned off the lighter as he took in a long drag before removing the bud from his lips. He closed his eyes and held the smoke in for a few seconds before he slowly blew it out. He rubbed his eyes with his free hand as he held the joint in between his fingers with the other one.

He knew that if Liam knew what Zayn was doing he'd be very disappointed, but he wasn't here. He wasn't around to tell him not to do it, and maybe that's why Zayn would do it. In hopes of Liam returning and getting him to stop because he always hated it. He took another drag making sure it was still lit before laying back onto the grass placing his arm over his eyes. The, now too familiar, feeling finally hitting him.

"Zayn. What do you think you're doing? I told you never to do that?" He heard Liam say.

"Why don't you come here and make me stop then?" Zayn replied not removing his arms from over his eyes.

"Because I can't, Zayn. You know this is bad for you. Please stop." Zayn snorted before shaking his head.

"I'll stop the day you return." He said before finally taking his arm off and sitting up, he looked around, he was all alone, Liam wasn't there. He sighed and lit up the joint again, since it had turned off, he held it in between his lips as he did, taking a final drag of it before he crushed it with his foot until it was completely turned off.

He blew out the smoke before getting up and putting hands in his jacket pockets again, he began walking off the field when he heard someone call out his name. He frowned and looked back but no one was there, he began looking around when he heard his name being called out again, but he couldn't see anyone.